History & origins
The story of Chess
Chess descends from chaturanga, played in India around the sixth century, and travelled west through Persia and the Islamic world into Europe. The rules changed substantially on the way — the queen was once nearly the weakest piece — and reached their modern form in Renaissance Spain and Italy.
Milestones
11 moments that shaped the modern game.
- c. 600
Chaturanga in India
A four-division army game — infantry, cavalry, elephants and chariots — became the ancestor of every chess variant played today, including shogi and xiangqi.
- c. 700
Shatranj in Persia
The game moved west and acquired the vocabulary still in use: 'checkmate' comes from shah mat, the king is helpless.
- c. 1475
The queen becomes powerful
In Spain and Italy the queen and bishop gained their long-range moves, replacing much weaker predecessors. Games became sharper and faster, and the modern game effectively begins here.
- 1851
The first international tournament
London hosted a knockout event won by Adolf Anderssen, establishing tournament play as the way to determine strength.
- 1886
The first World Championship
Wilhelm Steinitz beat Johannes Zukertort in a match across three American cities, and introduced positional theory that made him the first modern player.
- 1924
FIDE is founded
An international federation in Paris took over the world title and the rating system, and organised the Chess Olympiad.
- 1948
Soviet dominance begins
State funding, coaching schools and analysis culture gave the Soviet Union near-total control of the world title for over forty years.
- 1972
Fischer versus Spassky
An American won the title in Reykjavík at the height of the Cold War, in a match followed far outside chess circles. Fischer never defended it.
- 1997
Deep Blue beats Kasparov
An IBM machine won a six-game match against the world champion, the first time a computer had beaten the best human under standard conditions.
- 2017
AlphaZero
A program taught only the rules reached superhuman strength in hours by playing itself, and its aggressive, piece-sacrificing style changed how humans evaluate positions.
- 2020
The online boom
Pandemic lockdowns, streaming and a hit television drama pushed online chess to record participation, and the sport found an audience larger than at any point in its history.